Obamanation

The president is expected any day now to sign an executive order that routs 70 years of efforts to get politics out of official federal business. Under the order, all companies (and their officers) would be required to list their political donations as a condition to bidding for government contracts. Companies can bid and lose out for the sin of donating to Republicans. Or they can protect their livelihoods by halting donations to the GOP altogether—which is the White House's real aim. Think of it as "not-pay to play." ... The president is expected any day now to sign an executive order that routs 70 years of efforts to get politics out of official federal business. Under the order, all companies (and their officers) would be required to list their political donations as a condition to bidding for government contracts. Companies can bid and lose out for the sin of donating to Republicans. Or they can protect their livelihoods by halting donations to the GOP altogether—which is the White House's real aim. Think of it as "not-pay to play." ...

Said Obama: "I asked Michelle the other day, I said, 'What's your favorite food' -- because we were sitting around with the girls. She said, 'Ah, Mexican food.'" The crowd loved the news. "You do not want to be between Michelle and a tamale," joked the president. "It's true. It's true. But she's moving, though, so she can afford to have as many tamales as she wants," said Obama in a nod to his wife's "Let's Move" healthy campaign. [I don't usually say this, but, OMG! This man has less than no class at all!]

The reason still cameras are not allowed during live presidential addresses is because of the noise from the camera shutters and the placement of the teleprompter, not for any sinister conspiracy-type reasons like we were hoping. And it's been going on a long time. The problem, according to Poynter, is that while many newspapers disclose that the photo they use is a re-enactment, some do not. And publishing these photos goes against the National Press Photographers Association Code of Ethics, which includes this relevant passage: "Resist being manipulated by staged photo opportunities." We had no idea there was an ethics code for photojournalists....

Barack Obama kept military commanders hanging by declaring he would 'sleep on it' before taking 16 hours to give the go-ahead to raid Bin Laden's compound. ... But the next morning after 16 hours, Obama summoned four top aides to the White House Diplomatic Room. Before they could speak, the president put his fist on the table and declared 'It's a go'. ... [He can make a fist? With the middle finger not extended? Who knew?] ... Mr Obama went straight to the Oval Office in his golf shoes, instead of to the residence as he normally does after golf.... Comedy Central host, Jon Stewart, was no less effusive on 'The Daily Show.' 'I suppose I should be expressing some ambivalence about the targeted killing of another human being. And yet - uhhhh, no!' ... [Hmmmm] ... 'How about those Navy SEALs?' said Letterman. 'They jump out of a helicopter and they break into the compound, and they fire a warning shot into his head.' [Hmmmm]

A small weekly paper in California claims that a White House official asked it to remove a sentence from a "benign" feature about Marine One because it reflected poorly on first lady Michelle Obama.... "Basically the reporter said that the First Lady didn't speak to the pilots but acknowledged them by making eye contact.... I thought it was interesting, though, that the [White House] was concerned enough about image to contact a little weekly paper in Pleasanton." The White House communications office did not return requests for comment

"White House Insider": Point of determination made FOR Obama not BY Obama. Will clarify as details become more clear. Very clear divide between Military and WH. Jarrett marginalized 100% on decision to take out OBL. She played no part. BD worked with LP and HC to form coalition to force CoC to engage. IMPORTANT SPECIFIC: When 48 hour go order issued, CoC was told, not requested. Administration scrambled to abort. That order was overruled. This order did not originate from CoC. Repeat — this order did not originate from CoC. He complied, but did not originate. Independent military contacts have confirmed. Stories corroborate one another. This is legit. The killing of Osama Bin Laden was in fact a Coup within Obama WH.

As soon as they realised what was happening, Bin Laden's guards opened fire from the rooftop with rocket-propelled grenades and apparently managed to shoot down one of the Black Hawks. A White House official said it was a heart-stopping moment for Barack Obama, echoing the disastrous 'Black Hawk Down' incident in Somalia in 1993 which left 18 US servicemen dead. This time, the crew escaped unhurt and the team went ahead with the raid 'even though they didn't know if they would have a ride home at the end', said the official. As terrified townsfolk emerged from their homes to see what was going on, Pashto-speaking CIA agents told them to go back in and shut the doors. Two dozen U.S. Navy Seals — special forces — wearing night-vision goggles dropped into the high-walled compound by sliding down ropes from Chinooks. They stormed inside to secure the terror chief's hideaway room by room, with head cameras relaying the action to the President and the director of the CIA, Leon Panetta, who was overseeing the operation at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

The violent final minutes were the culmination of years of intelligence work. Inside the CIA team hunting bin Laden, it always was clear that bin Laden's vulnerability was his couriers. He was too smart to let al-Qaida foot soldiers, or even his senior commanders, know his hideout. But if he wanted to get his messages out, somebody had to carry them, someone bin Laden trusted with his life. In a secret CIA prison in Eastern Europe years ago, al-Qaida's No. 3 leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, gave authorities the nicknames of several of bin Laden's couriers, four former U.S. intelligence officials said. Those names were among thousands of leads the CIA was pursuing. One man became a particular interest for the agency when another detainee, Abu Faraj al-Libi, told interrogators that when he was promoted to succeed Mohammed as al-Qaida's operational leader he received the word through a courier. Only bin Laden would have given al-Libi that promotion, CIA officials believed. If they could find that courier, they'd find bin Laden. The revelation that intelligence gleaned from the CIA's so-called black sites helped kill bin Laden was seen as vindication for many intelligence officials who have been repeatedly investigated and criticized for their involvement in a program that involved the harshest interrogation methods in U.S. history. "We got beat up for it, but those efforts led to this great day...." [Despite this being Obama-slavering propaganda [ABC? of course!], interesting.

In a pants-on-fire moment, the White House press office today denied anyone there had issued threats to remove Carla Marinucci and possibly other Hearst reporters from the press pool covering the President in the Bay Area. Chronicle editor Ward Bushee called the press office on its fib

The genius of the Constitution is not some person, time, or place. It is a very improbable conjunction of all three. Jefferson and Madison were not the only ones to fear the abuse of power. That idea goes back to the Epic of Gilgamesh. Every family with an alcoholic father or a tyrannical grandmother knows it. In England John Locke and Edmund Burke feared tyranny as much as the American founders, but they never had a chance to build the foundations of a new, independent, great power. Obama is our first Marxist-Leninist president. He never quite uses those words, but in words and deeds he makes it clear beyond doubt. His two autobiographies all but say it.

Sources tell ABC News that in March President Obama authorized the development of a plan for the U.S. to bomb Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad compound with two B2 stealth bombers dropping a few dozen 2,000-pound JDAMs (Joint Direct Attack Munitions) on the compound. But when the president heard the compound would be reduced to rubble he chose not to pursue that option. That would mean there would be no evidence bin Laden was dead to present to the world — no DNA evidence, as the administration anticipates it will have. Plus all 22 people in the compound including women and children, plus likely many neighbors would be killed. The president wanted proof. And he wanted to minimize collateral damage.

The Obama administration has photographs of Osama bin Laden's dead body and officials are debating what to do with them and whether they should be released to the public

"I met repeatedly with my National Security team as we developed more information about the possibility that we had located Bin Laden hiding within a compound deep inside Pakistan," Obama said in an address from the East Room of the White House Sunday night. "Finally, last week I determined that we had enough intelligence to take action and authorized an operation to get Osama bin Laden and bring him to justice," Obama said.

President Barack Obama's father was forced to leave Harvard University before completing his Ph.D. in economics because the school was concerned about his personal life and finances, according to newly public immigration records.